Another Friend Adopting!!

We have yet another wonderful friend adopting again. They have two biological children and one son adopted from Russia (December, 2008). They are adopting from Russia yet again!

Check out their page (by clicking the picture in this post) and if you can, make a tax free donation to them.

A Friend's Great Big Giveaway Fundraiser/Opportunity!

Go check out Melissa and Nathan's exciting news about adopting a second child, this time from right here in the USA! They are hosting a Great Big Giveaway with some great prizes! $5.00 gets you one chance and $10.00 gets you three chances! Help bring a child home to a wonderful family and possibly win a great prize. Go ahead and congratulate them on their new journey while you are there!!

Chugga, Chugga, Choo, Choo!!

Breaking news - we're expecting 12-24 inches of snow tonight - and we have at least 6 already. Yikes!!

It's no secret this year that the only thing Daniel wants is a big train (as if he doesn't have any!). So this year we thought it might be fun to take Daniel on a real train ride. We were able to combine a trip to Nashville to visit my grandmother with a ride on the North Pole Express Train with several other adoptive families.

We met Carey and Norm and their two children (private blog), Adrienne and Owen and Carrie and S. to ride the train together. The kids had so much fun listening to the conductor read a story, getting two gifts from the elves and telling Santa what they wanted for Christmas.

Daniel spent the first 1/2 an hour just looking out the window watching the signals as we crossed over roads and talking train talk. He loves talking about the couplings and whether or not we were in a steam engine or a diesal engine - (Thomas the Train talk! - Before long we were assured by Daniel that Bert was our front engine and Arry was our back engine!)

Visiting with my grandmother was nice. They had open house at her place of residence and we were able to visit with some additional family and enjoy meeting lots of my grandmother's friends. Santa came to visit during the open house to and Daniel happened to be sitting in Troy's lap. Well, when Santa came over Daniel kept repeatedly telling Santa that "This is my daddy, This is my daddy." Santa played along and asked if "Daddy had been good." Daniel assured him yes and when Santa asked Daniel what he should bring Daddy, Daniel paused and then said (much to the audiences laughter) "A Great Big Train!"

Daniel loves his great grandmother "CC" and we were glad to visit with her.

Here are a few fun photos from our time!

We never get bored in the car on an 8 plus hour drive!

Big boys on the train!

Presents from the Elves!



A Visit from Santa on the train!



No trip is complete without a visit to Bass Pro in Nashville!

Pumpkin Patch Visit 2009

Sunday we took off to the pumpkin patch and met up with Meghan, Bill and Nick. It was so good to see them this year and be able to actually go to the pumpkin patch. Last year we got rained out and ended up visiting at the Children's Discovery Museum. This year we thought the same would happen but we switched weekends and were able to pick out the perfect pumpkins!

The pumpkin patch had a great "corn box". It was just like a sandbox but with corn and the boys loved it!! We weren't sure we going to get them out there at lunch time!

Let's see - they also rode ponies, pet the animals at the petting zoo, played on the combine turned slides, rode the hayride, picked out pumpkins and gourds, jumped on hale bales and off of them, and then finished the day off with a nice lunch out.

The adults had a nice time too!!

On the Mend...

Daniel is such a trooper. As if he hasn't been subjected to enough medically already, he flew through pneumonia with flying colors. He's still currently on the nebulizer meds twice a day, but he finished his oral antibiotic Monday and he looks and feels much better. He still has a leftover cough, but I am no longer following him around with tissues to blow his nose.

Granny (Troy's mom) came up on Saturday afternoon and took over playing with Daniel and then spent the night and played with him until noon Sunday. I was so grateful to her for the much needed break. There's only so many indoor activities and we had been couped in the house, besides the doctor visits, since the past Tuesday evening. Granny even brought her Cricut and I got to sit at the table and cut things out for scrapbooking for over an hour. Thank you Granny!!

Monday morning we finally ventured out to meet a family, who lives within about half an hour of us, who had adopted a little boy from Russia about 5 months ago. We had a wonderful visit, sharing photos and talking about our experiences while the boys played. They played parrallel to each other inside the house, but once we let them outdoors with a couple of tricycles, they had a blast following each other around. Boys just love to be outside!! I had such a nice time and we are hoping to get together again soon to get the boys some more outdoor action at a nearby park. It's so wonderful to be able to meet fellow adoptive parents!

Today he went back to daycare and he immediately started hugging the other children, especially the little girls, two blonds in fact. Oh my, heartbreaker city!

Here are a couple of photos of Daniel and Will (his new Russian friend)!

Meeting with Friends

Saturday we had the opportunity to meet with two other families who have recently adopted from Russia. We actually met Meghan and Bill while we were in Moscow finishing up our paperwork to bring Daniel home, while they were there on their journey to meet their son Nick. We hadn't met Karyn and Norm yet, only seen each other through the glass at the airport when we were getting off the plane on our way home and they were boarding to take their first trip to Russia to meet their son Ilya.

We had great plans to meet at a pumpkin patch to pick out pumpkins, but the weather didn't cooperate. Instead we met a the Virginia Discovery Museum for children and let the kiddos play and play and then we all enjoyed a lunch out. It was wonderful to connect with others who have been through the process and to be able to talk about our experiences and our children who have a lot in common.

I'll leave you with son pictures of Daniel, Ilya, and Nick. I know everyone can appreciate how, shall we say, impossible it is to get a picture of three children looking at the camera at the same time??!!

The train table was a big hit, especially for Daniel!

On stage checking out the things to do.

Daniel loved the ball that balanced when air flew up.

I love how he wanted to make sure Papa was watching!

Future accordian player? Daniel loved this!

Ilya had a good time playing!

Nick and Daniel still checking out the train table!

And just in case you wanted to see the parents...